A Mother’s Day Conversation with Dame Chantal Coady

Food has a remarkable way of binding generations together through recipes, rituals, and the quiet moments spent side by side in the kitchen. For Mother’s Day, LDE London speaks with Dame Chantal Coady about the role food has played in her relationship with her daughter Millie from childhood memories of global cooking to the traditions she hopes will continue for generations to come.

What is the food that feels most like home when you think about cooking for your daughter and why?

We’re very keen on a good chicken stock. It’s the basis of so many civilisations, and we often have a pot on the go or some in the freezer. We love making delicious soups, adding vegetables and fresh herbs the fragrance fills the house.

These days we try to be a little organised as everyone is so busy. We like to cook freshly every day, although I confess we do keep a few things in the freezer to speed things up a bit like a pre-chopped soffritto.

When do you feel most connected with your daughter while cooking together, sharing a meal, or in another moment entirely?

We’re both very creative and have always enjoyed making things together whether that’s food, art, mending things, or comparing books, clothes and make‑up tips.

We love planning the next big meal and really enjoy having guests to feed. That’s a family tradition that goes back at least three generations. We try to prep as much as possible in advance although I have to say Millie is much more organised than me and loves a spreadsheet.

We also exchange Instagram recipe reels and enjoy the occasional “girl dinner” when we happen to be home for supper at the same time.

What did food look like in your own childhood, and how has that shaped the way you cook for your daughter today?

As a child, I thought it was completely normal to sit around a table eating food from around the world. Both my parents loved travelling and cooking well early adopters of what was then called world cookery. They owned all the books of their era: Elizabeth David, Jane Grigson and Claudia Roden.

Going back even further, they used to make garam masala from scratch with twenty‑odd spices and share it with friends and family, inspired by Countess Morphy’s 1935 book Recipes of All Nations.

I remember being at primary school when I realised we were not quite the same as everyone else. I invited a friend for tea and we sat down to one of our favourite dishes 'beef stew and wine.' She had never come across anything like it before.

We regularly ate food from Persia, India, the Middle East, France and Italy. My mother was a wonderful baker and often made pancakes for breakfast. My father had calculated it was a perfectly balanced meal eggs, milk, flour and butter and one batter would feed five hungry mouths.

Some of my earliest memories are of gathering blackberries and bringing them home to bake into pies. I remember rubbing butter into flour to make pastry.

We were all encouraged to join in chopping, stirring and baking. I think knife skills are one of the most important things to give young children — sharp knives and the confidence to use them. Both my children were pretty handy by the time they were five. The time I invested cooking with them has been rewarded many times over.

What is something you have come to understand or appreciate about your daughter as she has grown older that you perhaps didn’t see when she was younger?

Her capacity for hard work, her attention to detail and her determination to get things right.

She loves understanding the reason why certain things have to be done. She enjoys a challenge whether that’s making kimchi, sourdough, or mastering a perfectly laminated croissant.

Is there a recipe, habit or food tradition you hope will continue through your daughter and into the next generation?

It has to be buckwheat galettes. Our favourite filling is grated Wensleydale with spicy mango chutney.

But the most important tradition is simply sitting down at the table together. Sharing food and talking is our way of showing how much we love each other.

If you could sit down and share one meal with your daughter past, present or sometime in the future — what would it be?

We all have such wonderful memories of time spent together in Provence. Throughout Millie’s childhood she learned from her grandmother foraging for mirabelles, making jam, fresh pasta and how to create a meal from the wonderful local produce.

Many big family celebrations happened around those tables, with very good food and wine. Conversation was always varied and often delightfully quirky.

The family are great quizzers. The other evening we even found ourselves discussing the meaning of the word 'oy!' comparing linguistic variations from Japanese to Spanish to English.

And inevitably the conversation returns to the same thing how good the food is.